Alessandro Zanoni

DESOLATE, ALONE, AND BROKEN: A STRONG VISUAL METAPHOR OF HUMAN BEINGS

I’m a graphic designer who lives and works in Milan. I began photography only a year ago when I decided to take pictures during my second trip to China. With a series of night shots I received an award at the International Photography Award (IPA) held in Los Angeles. One of these photographs was selected by David Clark, the Head of Photography for Tate Gallery in London, to be part of a collective exhibition in New York at the Splashlight Gallery.

I’ve (visited) Shanghai three years in a row. The first time was in 2013 to visit two great friends of mine, guest artists at The Swatch Art Peace Hotel on the Bund. It was love at first sight with the city. I still have some friends who work there and they’ve helped me to discover different places. When I’m in Shanghai, I feel quite at home.

I guess that what strikes observant visitors in China the most is the quick growth of the country. A growth that probably does not care too much about people history, traditions, health or happiness. A growth also relating to the unprecedented mass migration of people from countryside to the megalopolis. With my shots, I’m trying to convey this feeling to Westerners who have never been to Shanghai before. It’s a sort of alienation that in my country, Italy, for example, it was thoroughly documented in the fifties and in the sixties, especially in some cinematic masterpieces.